John Cena’s Peacemaker: The Suicide Squad Spinoff Series Adds King Shark Actor Steve Agee

James Gunn regular Steve Agee, who has appeared in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 and Brightburn, has joined the cast of HBO Max’s forthcoming Peacemaker series. The show, which stars John Cena in the title role, will spin out of the events of The Suicide Squad, and Gunn will be an active participant in creating Peacemaker. Agee, who stands in for King Shark during production in the same way Gunn’s brother Sean stood in for Rocket Raccoon on Guardians, will return in the role of John Economos, a warden of Belle Reve and an aide to Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller.

Economos comes from the comics, where he was created by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell, first appearing in Suicide Squad #1. A setting from that comic — the Nazi fortress Jotunheim — will also feature into the story of The Suicide Squad, which will also feature an appearance by Ostrander himself.

Deadline, who broke the story, note that it seems plausible other characters will make their way to the TV show as well, although there are no more specifics at this point. Gunn will write the entire eight-episode miniseries and will direct some of the episodes. Besides The Suicide Squad, Gunn also has Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 to complete on the feature side.

Gunn took on The Suicide Squad after being fired from Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, but when Marvel called him back to the project that just meant he had another movie to finish first. Recently, it came out that Cena’s character was set to be spun out into his own series on HBO Max.

“This is also, you try to do the best you can with every opportunity,” Cena explained. “I really loved The Suicide Squad and got along great with James [Gunn], and was like ‘Hey man, we should do this again!’ He was like ‘Yeah, we should do this again!’ Pretty soon, he was like, ‘Yo, do you want to do a show for HBO Max?’ I was like, what?!”

Joining Cena in The Suicide Squad is a star-studded cast including Sean Gunn as Weasel, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang Idris Elba as Bloodsport, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Steve Agee as John Economos and King Shark (on-set reference), Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, John Cena as Peacemaker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Flula Borg as Javelin, Peter Capaldi as Thinker, Nathan Fillion as Tok, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Joaquin Cosio as General Mateo Suarez, Juan Diego Botto as Luna, Storm Reid as Tyla, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, and Taika Waititi in an unknown role.

The Suicide Squad is set for release on August 6, 2021.